How Robots Are Helping People With Disabilities

Since “robotics” is one of our 200 + hobbies, I decided to research a bit more about the mysterious (to me, at least) world of robots. What I found was some exciting research about robotics and people with disabilities.

I have to admit that I was fairly ignorant about the world of robotics. After researching, however, I’m definitely considering adding robotics to my growing list of hobbies.

I may not be creating robots any time soon–but robotics definitely has my attention.

This is an excellent article from Science Daily on people who are trying to regain use of their limbs. A research team at the Rochester Institute of Technology is conducting a study on orthoses, or external devises, and how they can be used to aid people who have physical disabilities, like strokes or spinal chord injuries.

As the article mentions, for some people, picking up a spoon is a difficult task, so this research is extremely exciting.

This is personally very exciting to me as I’ve worked with children and families affected by autism. The article talks about Socially Assisted Robots, something I’ve never heard of before, and how children with autism interact well with mechanical devices. The study is being conducted by researchers at the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering, and is an exciting step in the field of autism research.

This an older article, but still relevant. The University of Hertfordshire conducted a study on robotic toys enabling children with developmental disabilities to develop social skills. Very interesting.

This is an even older article (2003) but it’s still interesting. Researchers in Montreal believe that robotics may play “an important role in maintaining speech or restoring it for the deaf.” I haven’t found any recent information on this, but it’s definitely promising.

If you know of any other studies on robotics and developmental disabilities leave them in the comments and we’ll add them to the list. This is some exciting information!